What's going on in Boston?

[Meshugger]

 

My guess is a wannabe, either an Al-Qaeda or a Ted Kaczynski one. Still, the cruelty of the attack is despicable.

 

I'm not sure cruelty is the word, as much as I loath it. the phenomenon of the Lone Fethwit has surely revealed these dogbiscuits are just generically angry rather than cruel.

 

Note to self: I'm really getting the hang of not swearing.

 

Edit: This does not apply when gaming. Without forethought I actually used the following exclamation last week:

 

"Oh, so it's a fight you want, is it, lizard t*ts? Well let's see how you like this, you pathetic c**kbasket!"

 

(edited by witness)

 

What Gorgon said. There's something very sinister with trying to create as much pain as possible while having death as a secondary objective. The wish to cause death can be false righteousness, hatred or even cynical political motives. But causing only pain is from enjoying suffering and the images of carnage, probably the worst form of cruelty that i know of.

 

Also, are you drunk right now? :D i somehow get the vibe of it by your posting.

[Walsingham]

Not drunk. British.

 

Design common to KFQ in Iraq, but got the pellet size wrong? That has jif copycat all over it in my book.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I doubt this was a major terrorist group. Seems too low key.

 

Strange choice of target. There are places with more people that also don't have much in the way of security.

 

Am leaning towards the right wing type as culprit instead of the islamic terrorists at this point. But I'd wager its also possible that its something personal and not ideologically motivated.

 

But honestly, I have no idea.

Edited April 17, 2013 by Drowsy Emperor

[Gfted1]

I have doubts that there was some sinister plot to maim instead of kill. From what Ive seen so far they were fairly simple devices, in this case pressure cookers packed with gunpowder, nails and BB's.

[Walsingham]

Those devices are of a type which were used in the mideast to lethal effect. Lethal effect was had here too of course. The 'splosives just went phutt, thank God.

 

This sort of failed tradecraft is the impact of being so aggressive about targetting training camps and safe havens. Not to mention internet surveillance of online guides and whatnot. Just look at news stories concerning the trails of wannabe terrorists.

 

What's interesting to me is the follow up ricin letters to the President and Congress. Now THAT I will bet is a copycat, and maybe white supremacists, stirring the pot. KFQ has gone off ricin as being too widely detectable and frankly rubbish.

[Walsingham]

UPDATE:  The BBC's Frank Gardner does a quick summary of possible perps.

[Blodhemn]

I loathe this sort of speculative, gossip response that comes with these events as much of it is political, and most of it is inaccurate. All of a sudden, everyone is an expert and need their opinion heard. Just stick with the facts and spare the misinformation.  

[alanschu]

I enjoyed this: http://www.juancole.com/2013/04/bombings-increase-sympathy.html

 

I particularly enjoyed the rather glowing remarks people from other countries that suffered from similar attacks had for the United States, in particularly the remarkably levels of compassion and humanity displayed by law enforcement and even just ordinary citizens.  Or the idea that the US is still held in rather high regard for the freedoms that are granted to its citizenry.  Even as a Canadian, I think it's easy to take for granted how good it often is for us.

 

I've become jaded to political talk on a lot of western forums because it's sofa king polarizing that I find it nauseating.  Just wanted to share this to maintain some perspective that us North Americans still have it pretty sweet, even if there are Americans that seem to feel that the US is on an express lane to hell in a handbasket (some Canadians too, though I think we're far too polite to get as militant about it).

 

I'm not a big fan of the mild shaming attempt at the end (people in America will feel more threatened by an attack in the US, simply because it hits closer to home.  Doesn't make them horrible human beings for not echoing the same amount of compassion for other countries that suffer through this).  And I don't intend for this message to be any sort of shaming for those that are indifferent towards what goes on in the Middle East or anywhere else.

 

I'd love for something like this to help unite the whole world together against these sort of attacks.  Kind of like the one fellow that posted that he was able to reassure himself that, with all the displays of helpers and good people in the wake of these events, the good outnumber the bad and always will.

Edited April 18, 2013 by alanschu

[Guard Dog]

Great post Alan! Humans are basically good but also fundamentally flawed I think. There are always going to be evil bastards among us like the cowards who plant a bomb then run away, and there are always going to be selfish bastards like the politicians and "journalists" who are attempting to use this tragedy for their own political ends to push an agenda (Yes I'm talking about you Barney Frank and Salon) or like all the scam artists setting up fake charity "victim funds" to trick people into donating. But the inspiring thing is all the people who ran to help, not just police and first responders but regular folks, even after the second bomb went off. They didn't know if there was a third or a fourth out there. They saw people who needed help and they ran to help. I find that inspiring.

[alanschu]

Agreed.  It was crazy watching runners that pretty much didn't break stride, they just stopped running a race and started running to help.  Not just the runners, but everyone.

 

 

Cheers mate!

[Walsingham]

I loathe this sort of speculative, gossip response that comes with these events as much of it is political, and most of it is inaccurate. All of a sudden, everyone is an expert and need their opinion heard. Just stick with the facts and spare the misinformation.  

 

Good luck with that. I take the trouble to follow up the news at trial and afterwards (eventually) in books. Can't think of many cases where the public got a solid read of the truth, even five/ten years later.

 

I agree that there's a lot of wild speculation. But the same way that dogs howl and bark, we humans gossip. As they used to say in the War "If you know a better 'ole, go to it."

[Rostere]

It does not really seem like the modus operandi of Muslim terrorists to attack a sports event. Wouldn't they also be inclined to blow up themselves with the bomb? And take credit for it all in some way?

 

I also bet you could kill a lot more people with just using guns. The killer must have been trying to get away with it.

 

My guess is that this was the work of a lone psycho, or maybe a small group of crazy people.

[Malcador]

You could kill more with guns rather than explosives ?   If the person or persons that did this were a bit more competent, it would be like setting a claymore mine off.   

[babaganoosh13]

Agreed.  It was crazy watching runners that pretty much didn't break stride, they just stopped running a race and started running to help.  Not just the runners, but everyone.

 

 

Cheers mate!

There's a fair number of doctors, and others in the medical profession that are marathon runners - my brother included. I think a lot of people are just geared to want to help people, especially nurses, medics and doctors.

[Rostere]

You could kill more with guns rather than explosives ?   If the person or persons that did this were a bit more competent, it would be like setting a claymore mine off.   

 

I meant that the result of the bomb has so far been three deaths. I think you would be able to kill more people with guns. In that statement also lies the assumption that this was a typical outcome for a bomb of this type - I can only assume it is.

 

I heard that the type of explosive was regular blackpowder? In that case we're really talking about a novice bomber, they didn't even bother with making something more potent like HMTD.

[Malcador]

Hm, really. Way you worded that came across as just in general.  Heh, when people at work were asking 'who'd bomb a marathon' couldn't help but think someone angry at the road closures (whiners cry about that here)

[LadyCrimson]

That's from the official FBI YouTube, btw. Footage of two guys that they're interested in now I guess.

 

Boston.com article regarding

 

Also: FBI website page with stills and the same video.

 

[alanschu]

I don't actually see anything incriminating in that video (not sure if we're supposed to, however).  But if they have a lead, I wish them luck.

[Calax]

http://jalopnik.com/radio-controlled-toy-car-parts-may-have-been-used-in-bo-476332410

 

Yeah.

[BruceVC]

I don't actually see anything incriminating in that video (not sure if we're supposed to, however).  But if they have a lead, I wish them luck.

 

 

You should realize when the FBI releases  a video publicly about "people of interest" around such a high profile investigation I can guarantee you that there is an excellent reason, I am confident these are the suspects involved. I did see that they don't seem  to be of any Arabic descent so its looks like this bombing is more a right wing plot than Al-Qeada affiliated, which is what many people have suspected due to the relatively amateurish way the whole bombing was implemented

[alanschu]

I have no doubt that they are suspects.  I was just under an assumption that the video would show it.  I'm not faulting the FBI or anything, more just making a comment.

 

Given the destination (Boston, large scale event, and Boston's ties to American Independence), I would not be surprised if the attack was by domestic individuals.

[LadyCrimson]

Some huge police/fed firefight at MIT campus a bit earlier. Conflicting reports on police scanners/news about whether it's connected to the Marathon bombings or unrelated. Either way...sheesh. Poor Boston. Not a good week.

 

edit: Guess the chase for one suspect still going on actually.

[Rostere]

It appears from a glance that they were indeed not Muslim fundamentalists. Also, the ricin letter dude was a mentally ill Elvis impersonator.

 

From what we've seen this far, I guess the bombers were just like the Colombine shooters, and not motivated by any political ideology or at least not part of any political group.

[LadyCrimson]

It would, so far, appear that the MIT/Watertown chaos would be a chase for the "Boston bombers." Stuff like Boston Police twitter post posting a new pic of one of them. And it's still going on. 1 suspect shot/died later in custody, the other still at large. Complete public transportation shutdown in and out of Watertown. Sounds nuts. Well, hope they get him without any further deaths and such.

 

Boston.com Live blog.

[BruceVC]

So it seems that the suspects  are Muslims from Chechnya, but that doesn't mean we are saying that all Muslims are extremists or if there motives were around political ideology, but we can discuss other facts.

 

Chechnya has had a long and violent history with Russia and we also know that certain extremists and people prepared to commit violent acts of terrorism have come from this country. So we need to watch this space